Radial seals are used in a variety of industrial contexts. For example, seals may be used to protect a bearing from contaminants and maintain grease or oil therein. The seals generally include a flexible element that engages (or nearly engages) a rotating element, often a shaft, and a more rigid element that connects with a housing or another generally stationary body. The seal thus allows the shaft to rotate (or otherwise move) relative to the housing, while maintaining a seal.
Many different sizes of seals are employed in different machines. Seals are thus often custom-designed for the particular machine in which they are used. Accordingly, relatively small customer orders for such seals may present a challenge, because it may not be practical to maintain a large inventory of every conceivable size and/or configuration of seal. Thus, such small orders may result in essentially a custom manufacturing run of the ordered seal. Typically, manufacturers react by attempting to simplify the manufacturing process, reducing the part count wherever possible. While this may be effective in some contexts, the challenge of inventory limitations may persist, and such small runs may make the seal manufacturing process less economical.